In studying the function of a behavioral characteristic of an animal, a researcher seeks to understand how natural selection favours the behaviour. In other words, the researcher tries to identify the ecological challenges, or “selection pressures,” faced by a species and then investigates how a particular behavioral trait helps individuals surmount these obstacles so that they can survive and reproduce. In short, the question being asked is: What is the behaviour good for?

Most anoles can change colour. The brightly coloured throat fan, or dewlap, signals possession of a territory and attracts females.Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

Until the mid-1960s, functional interpretations of animal behaviour were usually made in terms of how a behaviour was “good for the species.” Social behaviours that excluded some individuals from reproducing (such as territorial defense and courtship displays) were seen as adaptations for regulating animal populations at levels that would prevent overpopulation, environmental destruction, and extinction of the species. This view was based on the observation of ecological phenomena—such as the overgrazing of grassland by cattle, leading to the starvation of the animals. American evolutionary biologist George C. Williams and British ornithologist David Lack, however, revealed the underlying theoretical problem with the view that animals behave in ways that limit their reproduction for the good of their species. Williams noted that individuals who maximize their own reproduction will have greater genetic success than those who behave in ways that limit their reproduction. Thus, over time, in subsequent generations, reproduction-reducing behaviours will be replaced by reproduction-enhancing ones. Therefore, it has become evident that it is incorrect to interpret the behaviour of animals as having evolved to function “for the good of the species.” Instead, the appropriate interpretation is how a behaviour has evolved for the “good of the individual.”

Williams’s theoretical argument was bolstered by Lack’s long-term study of the reproductive behaviour of the European, or common, swift (Apus apus). At first glance, swifts appear to voluntarily restrict their own reproduction. When Lack removed the eggs laid each day from a pair’s nest he discovered that the female could lay up to 72 or more eggs in a season. Yet, surprisingly, she usually lays just two or three eggs. Are chimney swifts regulating their egg production to avoid overpopulation, or does the number of eggs laid equal the number of young they can successfully rear each year? Lack answered this question by performing the experiment of adding one or two nestlings to the nests of certain pairs so that, instead of the normal two or three young, they would have to rear four or five. He then compared the reproductive success of these pairs to those that were left rearing the normal number. Lack found that the birds with four or five young were less successful (that is, rearing fewer young to fledging) than those in a control group who reared a normal-sized brood. Therefore, chimney swifts, in rearing just two or three offspring, are not withholding reproduction for the good of their species or local population; instead, they are producing as many young as they can successfully rear given a limited food supply, thereby maximizing their own reproduction.

Chimney swifts provide just one example of a pattern that has been found repeatedly by biologists studying the behaviour and reproduction of animals. They have found that individuals are “selfish,” behaving in ways that benefit their own reproduction regardless of its long-term effect on the survival of their species. Sometimes, however, animals engage in apparent altruism (that is, they exhibit behaviour that increases the fitness of other individuals by engaging in activities that decrease their own reproductive success). For example, American zoologist Paul Sherman found that female Belding’s ground squirrels (Spermophilus beldingi) give staccato whistles that warn nearby conspecifics of a predator’s approach but also attract the predator’s attention to the caller. Likewise, worker honeybees (Apis mellifera) perform suicidal attacks on intruders to defend their colony, and female lions (Panthera leo) sometimes nurse cubs that are not their own (although some authorities note that such cubs suckle the lioness when she is asleep).

The key insight to understanding the evolution of such self-sacrificial behaviour was provided by British evolutionary biologist William D. Hamilton in the mid-1960s. He argued that natural selection favours genetic success, not reproductive success per se, and that individuals can pass copies of their genes on to future generations. Genes are passed from direct parentage (the rearing of offspring and grand-offspring) and by assisting the reproduction of close relatives (such as nieces and nephews), a concept referred to as “inclusive fitness” or “kin selection.”

Hamilton devised a formula—now called Hamilton’s rule—that specifies the conditions under which reproductive altruism evolves:
r × B > C
where B is the benefit (in number of offspring equivalents) gained by the recipient of the altruism, C is the cost (in number of offspring equivalents) suffered by the donor while undertaking the altruistic behaviour, and r is the genetic relatedness of the altruist to the beneficiary. Relatedness is the probability that a gene in the potential altruist is shared by the potential recipient of the altruistic behaviour. Altruism can evolve in a population if a potential donor of assistance can more than make up for losing C offspring by adding to the population B offspring bearing a fraction r of its genes. For example, a female lion with a well-nourished cub gains inclusive fitness by nursing a starving cub of a full sister because the benefit to her sister (B = one offspring that would otherwise die) more than compensates for the loss to herself (C = approximately one quarter of an offspring), since the survival probability of her own, non-starving cub is only slightly reduced. Given that the average genetic relatedness (that is, r) between two full sisters is 0.5, then according to Hamilton’s rule (0.5 × 1) > 0.25. In essence, genes for altruism spread by promoting aid to copies of themselves.

According to this view, which was popularized by British zoologist Richard Dawkins, the most appropriate way of viewing natural selection is from a gene-selection perspective, as embodied in Hamilton’s rule. Genes that are best able to guide the organisms that bear them to propagate successfully will persist and proliferate over generations. Consequently, an explanation of the function of a particular behaviour should include how the behaviour promotes the success of the genes that underlie the behaviour. Of course, since an animal’s behaviour almost always promotes genetic success by helping the animal survive and reproduce its genes, investigations of behavioral function typically address the survival and reproductive value of the behaviour.

The most straightforward way to study the function of a behaviour is to see how natural selection operates on it under current conditions by studying differential reproduction. Often this kind of investigation can be conducted by exploiting the naturally occurring variation among individuals, such as in a particular phenotypic (observable) trait in a population. Sometimes, however, the researcher must experimentally enhance behavioral variation where too little exists in nature. The experimental approach may have the disadvantage of involving unnatural variants, but it has the advantage of revealing how differences among individuals, even in a single trait, can cause variation in reproductive fitness. Either way, a study of natural selection acting on behaviour requires that the researcher be able to observe natural populations and obtain detailed information on each individual’s survival, its ability to attract a mate, its fertility, and so forth. All of this information is essential to assess an animal’s success in passing on its genes.

Three types of natural selection, showing the effects of each on the distribution of phenotypes within a population. The downward arrows point to those phenotypes against which selection acts. Stabilizing selection (left column) acts against phenotypes at both extremes of the distribution, favouring the multiplication of intermediate phenotypes. Directional selection (centre column) acts against only one extreme of phenotypes, causing a shift in distribution toward the other extreme. Diversifying selection (right column) acts against intermediate phenotypes, creating a split in distribution toward each extreme.Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.

An investigation of why male titmice, or great tits (Parus major), woodland birds of Europe, sing multiple songs serves to illustrate how a behavioral function can be studied by exploiting naturally existing variation. Each great tit male has a repertoire of one to eight songs that he uses to advertise his presence on a territory. Investigators can acquire detailed information on the breeding biology of these birds because great tits are cavity nesters that readily accept man-made nest boxes. In one experiment on a wooded estate near Oxford, Eng., English zoologist John Krebs and his colleagues installed and regularly inspected nest boxes during the breeding season. The researchers recorded the singing behaviour of each breeding male in order to determine repertoire size. They also recorded the egg-laying date, the clutch size (number of eggs), the brood size (number of young), and the fledgling weight for the nests of numerous males. It was possible to monitor the survival of each male’s young to the time of its own breeding, because all the young were banded before they fledged and most fledglings returned to the same woods to breed themselves.

The researchers found that individual tits had different repertoire sizes. Males with larger repertoires had chicks that were heavier at fledging, and more of these chicks survived to breed than offspring of males with smaller repertoires. Thus male repertoire size and reproductive success were correlated. The underlying mechanism is that males with larger song repertoires were able to acquire superior territories—specifically, ones with better food. Previous studies had shown that size and survival of young tits depend on body weight at time of fledging: the bigger and heavier the fledgling, the greater its chances of survival to maturity. Thus, the function of a great tit male’s singing multiple songs is to help him secure a top-quality breeding territory and mate. So why do all males not sing multiple songs? Perhaps songs are learned over time, so that only the oldest males can possess a large repertoire. Alternatively, perhaps there are costs (such as time away from foraging or increased vulnerability to predators) to singing multiple songs, and only the biggest, strongest males can sing many songs and still survive.

Direct comparisons of individuals of the same species exhibiting natural variation in behaviour is a revealing way to study behavioral function. However, when appropriate natural variations do not exist, experimental manipulations can provide the needed variation in the behaviour. The variant forms are then studied in the field to determine how well extreme forms of the behaviour do in the face of natural selection. Using this method, American biologist Thomas Seeley investigated nest site choice in a species of Southeast Asian honeybee, Apis florea. Colonies build their nests of beeswax combs amid dense foliage, suspended from the branches of bushes and understory trees. Moreover, if a colony’s nest loses its cover during the dry season when many trees shed their leaves, the colony will build its new nest in another leafy site. What is the function of this behaviour of nesting in dense vegetation? Is it to prevent the nest from overheating under the strong tropical sun, or to conceal the nest from predators, or both?

To test the antipredator hypothesis, pairs of naturally occurring colonies were identified. Within each pair the vegetation around the nest of one colony, which served as the experimental unit, was removed, leaving only enough to provide shade but rendering it conspicuous to predators. The vegetation surrounding the nest of the second colony, which served as the control, was not removed. Measurements of nest site temperatures one day later revealed no significant differences between the two nests. Within one week, however, four of the seven experimental colonies had been discovered and destroyed by predators (probably monkeys and tree shrews) whereas none of the control nests had suffered any damage. Thus, it appears that A. florea colonies choose dense vegetation as nesting sites primarily to conceal their nests from predators.

Another example of a well-controlled field experiment on the function of behaviour is Dutch-born British zoologist and ethologist Nikolaas Tinbergen’s pioneering study of eggshell removal by black-headedgulls (Larus ridibundus). In a matter of hours after their eggs hatch, they pick up the empty eggshells, fly off, and drop them well away from the nest. Why should a gull engage in this behaviour? One hypothesis was that the sharp edges of the shells might injure the chicks, a danger that is well known to poultry breeders. Another hypothesis was that the white insides of broken shells might attract predators, such as crows and herring gulls flying overhead, and so endanger the brood. To test the latter hypothesis, Tinbergen and his colleagues distributed single gull decoy eggs around the dunes where the black-headed gulls nest, and placed broken eggshells near some of the decoy eggs while leaving others isolated. The investigators found that the eggs near broken shells were preyed upon sooner than the isolated, less conspicuous eggs. Evidently, the removal of broken eggshells from the nest by gulls helps to maintain the camouflage of the brood, thereby reducing predation.